Minecraft guide

Mining

Mining is what minecraft is ALL ABOUT! It is the most important part in getting resources. First, the basic one is wood, mentioned in basic survival later. You will need a wooden pick axe as a basic thing. You should know how to craft it as I have mentioned it in the previous chapter. It can only mine stone, which are grey stuff under the soil, and when you mine stone, you get cobblestone. You can also use cobblestone to make a similar pick axe, replacing the planks with the cobble. It will give you a stronger stone pick axe. It can mine iron, coal ores and I think also gold ores. Iron ores are those which look like normal stone it with brown patches on it. Gold is also similar to stone but have bright yellow patches. Gold is relatively rarer than iron. I shall emphasise more on strength of materials later. Gold and iron ores MUST be smelted to get the pure ingot. Coal ores give you just a piece of coal, no smelting required. You do not get the full ingot. Smelting is basically using a furnace which the crafting recipe will be mentioned later. In a furnace, there are two spaces placed vertically apart. Putting coal or wooden objects in the bottom slot will activate the fire if there is a smeltable object on the top slot. Iron, gold and cobblestone can be smelted. Cobblestone, when smelted, becomes pure stone, like it was before, iron ores become iron ingots and gold ores, popularly known as butter ores, can be made into gold ingots (butter ingots). The smelted result will appear in the big slot in the right.

The other two things that can be mined are diamond and emerald. Emeralds are the rarest, and diamond 2nd. Emerald cannot be used for tools but can be used for trading with villagers in NPC villages. Diamond is very strong in making tools. Diamond is regular stone with bright blue patches on it. Emerald have bright green dots on it. Both can only be mined by iron and diamond pickaxes.

As summary, here are the functions for the different material pickaxes.

Wooden pickaxe- Can only mine coal ore, stone and cobblestone, but essential as a start as you cannot mine cobble stone with your own hand. So you need just one and you are free to get stronger pickaxes.

Stone pickaxe-Cobblestone, smooth stone and iron ore. Basically iron as very common, so you usually only need one stone pickaxe.

Iron pickaxe-Cobblestone, stone, iron ore, gold ore, diamond ore, and emerald ore. This is the minimum pickaxe to be able to mine almost everything. Do note that iron is a lot more common than gold, and so with an iron pickaxe you can get enough resources.

Gold pickaxe-Only cobblestone, stone and coal ore. Just like a stone pickaxe. So you may think it useless as it also lasts shorter than a wooden pickaxe. The only benefit is that it can mine a lot faster than that of the other pickaxes, even the diamond pickaxe. Do note that I have mentioned that you can only mine cobble, stone and coal. It can only mine those very fast.

Diamond pickaxe-The most durable of all. These can mine all ores, and can also mine obsidian. Obsidian is created when you pour water over stationary lava. Mining obsidian requires a lot of time. As it can only be mined by a diamond pickaxe, which takes a very long time itself, using other pickaxes will take you almost a minute, and nothing will come out.

Mining can cause you to be hungry more easily.

Using other tools, items, or with your bare hands to mine will only result in a long time in breaking and nothing gained. Pickaxes which also mine blocks beyond its capability (ex. Wooden pickaxe mining coal ore) will also give you that result.

Here are the ores you need for survival

Coal ore-Minable with stone picks or above, it can also be mined with gold pick with a high speed. They can be used to make torches or be used in a furnace to activate a fire. A version of coal is charcoal, which is the same thing, but is created by smelting pure wooden blocks. Coal and charcoal last for about 2 mins in a furnace.

Iron ore-Only stone picks and above but not gold ones. They can be smelted to iron ingots which will be the basic materials for iron tools. Special tools crafted from iron are shears (one iron in top left and one diagonally bottom right of it, can be crafted in basic crafting box) and flint and steel (same order as shears but bottom right is flint).

Gold ore-Iron pick and above, no gold picks. Not very essential, but can be smelted into gold ingots. They may not be used for tools, but they have other uses to make up for it. They will be mentioned later.

Diamond ore-Minable with iron and above without gold picks. Does not need to be smelted and are the strongest material for tools.

Here are some other ores that is not very essential to gameplay

Emerald ore-Iron pick and above. The rarest ore in the game, even rarer than diamond. These have no use except for trading with villagers. They can only be found in huge ravines or mountains, and are not in packs. Stone with green dots-not patches.

Here are non-essential ones o which may improve gameplay.

Redstone ore-Iron and above, these are used as "wires" which I will explain later. They look like stone with red patches on it, and occasionally give out red particles.

Lapis lazuli ore-Iron and above, no known function except for making dyes. Has large dark blue patterns.

Nether Quartz-A special ore found only in the Nether, it has no apparent use.